The court will hold representative questioning on the 23rd for five JoongAng Group affiliates, including JTBC, which filed for court receivership.
The Rehabilitation Division 2 of the Seoul Bankruptcy Court (Chief Judge Jeong Jun-young) will hold representative questioning in sequence from 10 a.m. that day for JoongAng Holdings, JoongAng P&I, JTBC, Megabox JoongAng, and Contentree JoongAng. Typically, when a bankruptcy court receives a petition to commence rehabilitation proceedings, it summons the debtor or representative to question them about the causes of the management crisis and the prospects for rehabilitation.
At JoongAng Holdings and JoongAng P&I, Chief Executive Kim Ki-hyeon is scheduled to appear, and at JTBC, Chief Executive Jeon Jin-bae and General Manager of Management Support Nam Jung-kwon are each set to appear. At Megabox JoongAng and Contentree JoongAng, Chief Executive Hong Jeong-in will attend with each company's co-CEO. They are expected to explain to the bench the specific scale of the debt and plans for debt adjustment.
The so-called "JoongAng Group rehabilitation crisis" began when JTBC on the 12th declared a debt default after failing to repay on maturity a $20.6 billion won securitized borrowing fund. Then on the 14th, JoongAng Holdings, Contentree JoongAng, JoongAng P&I, and Megabox JoongAng successively applied to commence rehabilitation proceedings. On the 15th, JTBC also filed for rehabilitation.
The court assigned all of the companies' petitions to Rehabilitation Division 2. It has currently issued preservation measures and a comprehensive stay order freezing assets and claims.
On the 14th, JTBC filed a petition with the court to defer a decision to commence rehabilitation proceedings and also expressed its intention to pursue the autonomous restructuring support (ARS) program. ARS is a system in which the court defers forced commencement of rehabilitation proceedings and supports corporations and creditors in voluntarily negotiating restructuring. If the bench approves the ARS program, it can defer the commencement of rehabilitation proceedings.